Endless Continuing Resolutions or Government Shutdown?

Jenny EriksonWe’re almost half way through the fiscal year (which began on October 1, 2010), and the federal government still hasn’t figured out its budget. They keep passing continuing resolutions, which means that they agree to stick mostly with last year’s budget until a final budget can be passed.

The most recent extension passed 87-13 in the Senate on Thursday, with our politicians assuring us that this will be the last time. The resolution included $6 billion in cuts for the fiscal year, yet nine Republican senators voted against it.

The conservative naysayers say that the cuts aren’t deep enough for their conscience to allow them to vote in favor of the short-term budget stopgap. Florida Senator Marco Rubio released a press statement explaining his vote in opposition of the resolution:

Today’s vote, first of all, should remind us of how we got here. Why are we funding government in two or three week increments? And it’s because Democrats, when they ran the House, the Senate and the White House, didn’t pass a budget.

“But more importantly, this is a terrible way to run government. We are facing some serious issues in America today, particularly the fact that we are borrowing $4 billion a day to keep the lights on and particularly the fact that we owe $14 trillion and growing. It’s time to face those issues in a serious way. The time for waiting is over. The time for games has passed.

He’s right. The spending in our country is completely out of control. The question shouldn’t be what we should fund, it needs be what can we afford? Unfortunately, the Democrats still control the upper house (the Senate) and the White House, and they don’t seem to mind sending the bill for fraudulent spending to our kids and grandkids.

$6 billion is a drop in the bucket of what we need to cut, but at least it’s a drop. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and Republicans need to take it to avoid falling into the trap of being the bad guys shutting down the government. Fiscally sane people have a better chance of getting elected in 2012 if the conservatives in congress take the small steps they can while reminding Americans that they’d like to sprint to the finish line if only the liberal majority weren’t stopping them.